A  RARE  FIRST  EDITION 
BEING    THE    STORY    OF 

JOAQUIN  MILLER'S 
PACIFIC  POEMS  (1871) 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 

Gift  of 
ROBERT  B.  HONE YM AN,  JR. 


A  RARE  FIRST  EDITION 

BEING  THE  STORY  OF 

JOAQUIN  MILLER'S 
PACIFIC  POEMS  (1871) 

OF  WHICH  ONLY  TWO  COPIES 
ARE  AT  PRESENT  KNOWN 


WALTER  M.  HILL 
CHICAGO 

1915 


One  hundred  copies  privately  printed 
of  which  this  is 


THE    TORCH    PRESS 

CEDAR    RAPIDS 

IOWA 


PACIFIC  POEMS 


PACIFIC  POEMS 

Collectors  of  first  editions  of  Ameri 
can  authors  have  often  had  their  curios 
ity  piqued  by  the  postscript  appended 
by  Joaquin  Miller  to  his  Songs  of  the 
Sierras,  London,  1871.  This  cryptic 
statement  read:  "The  foregoing  is  the 
preface  to  a  thin  book  printed  here  last 
winter,  but  not  published  further  than  to 
send  less  than  half-a-dozen  copies  to  the 
press.  As  the  reader  sometimes  is  curi 
ous  to  know  the  origin  of  a  new  book, 
and  this  includes  almost  all  that  could  be 
sought,  I  let  it  stand. ' '  Certainly  the  in 
formation  thus  given  is  not  particularly 


illuminating,  and  up  to  the  present  time 
little  more  has  been  known.  Very  few 
collectors  or  dealers  have  ever  seen  a 
copy  of  the  "thin  book"  referred  to.  A 
fortunate  combination  of  circumstances, 
however,  has  recently  revealed  the  true 
story  of  the  little  book.  The  facts  re 
garding  it,  as  we  now  know  them,  are,  it 
is  believed,  of  sufficient  interest  to  war 
rant  passing  them  on  to  those  collectors 
who  are  wise  enough  to  include  in  their 
pastime  the  pleasant  habit  of  annotating 
their  private  catalogues  and  inserting 
bibliographical  or  literary  notes  in  their 
copies  of  famous  or  rare  books. 

Joaquin  Miller's  "thin  book"  was  a 
little  duodecimo  volume  bound  in  green 
cloth,  (xii)  + 107  pages  in  extent,  en 
titled  Pacific  Poems.  It  was  put  into 


type,  probably  at  the  author's  expense, 
during  the  early  months  of  1871.  So  far 
as  we  have  been  able  to  ascertain  only 
one  copy  has  ever  before  been  publicly 
offered  for  sale  by  a  dealer.  This  was 
the  copy  offered  in  Mr.  J.  F.  Drake's 
catalogue  No.  78  (1914),  item  no.  97. 
With  an  easily  pardonable  enthusiasm 
that  genial  bibliophile  as  well  as  biblio 
pole  described  it  as  probably  the  only 
one  in  existence.  A  wariness  doubtless 
learned  through  hard  experience  led  him 
to  use  that  saving  word  "probably." 
For,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  let  a  book 
seller  or  collector  describe  a  print 
ed  work  as  "unique"  or  "probably 
unique,"  and  an  ironical  Fate  at  once 
rises  up  to  prove  him  —  mistaken.  Thus 
it  has  proved  in  the  case  of  Pacific 


Poems.  A  second  copy  has  come  to  light 
and  in  October,  1915,  this  was  acquired 
by  Mr.  Walter  M.  Hill  of  Chicago. 

It  is  an  attested  fact  of  literary  his 
tory  that  Joaquin  Miller's  early  work 
was  rather  severely  criticised  by  Amer 
ican  reviewers.  So,  daring  greatly,  he 
sought  the  world's  capital  in  the  hope 
of  finding  there  a  sympathetic  publisher 
for  his  first  collected  volume  of  verse. 
In  London  he  was  most  hospitably  re 
ceived  in  the  highest  literary  and  social 
circles.  He  found  friends  and  helpful 
critics  among  the  leading  men  of  letters 
of  the  day  and  with  one  of  them,  Lord 
Houghton  (Richard  Monckton  Milnes), 
he  afterwards  spent  a  winter  in  Greece 
tracing  out  the  places  hallowed  by  asso 
ciation  with  Byron  whom  he  was  accus 
tomed  to  call  the  Master.  Another 


friend  was  Dean  Stanley,  and  it  is  with 
him  that  this  record  of  the  new  facts  re 
garding  Pacific  Poems  may  fitly  begin. 

Some  time  in  the  spring  of  1871,  at  the 
home  of  Dean  Stanley,  Cincinnatus  Hin- 
er  Miller  was  introduced  to  a  young 
Irish  poet,  one  who  is  still  living  and 
who  has  made  his  mark  in  various  fields 
of  literary  endeavor.  From  his  pen,  un 
der  date  of  June  1st,  1915,  there  comes 
the  following  interesting  narrative : 

"Dean  Stanley  introduced  me  to  him 
as  a  brother  poet  likely  to  befriend  a 
stranger  in  London.  I  called  upon  Mr. 
Miller,  who  was  living  in  Whitechapel, 
and  afterwards  introduced  my  friend 
and  compatriot,  Mr.  Greorge  F.  Savage 
Armstrong,  to  him.  We  became  some 
what  intimate,  and  soon  gathered  from 
Mr.  Miller  that  he  proposed  publishing 


a  volume  of  poems  dealing  with  New 
Mexico.  He  showed  us  some  of  these 
poems,  which  he  entitled  *  Pacific 
Poems/  in  proof.  We  were  both  great 
ly  struck  with  their  originality  and  beau 
ty,  but  were  forced  to  confess  and  tell 
him  quite  plainly  that  much  of  his  metre 
was  extremely  faulty.  He  was  annoyed 
but  evidently  impressed.  One  day  he 
came  to  me  and  said,  'Look  here,  do  you 
mind  taking  a  passage  —  this  passage  — 
pointing  to  it  in  his  proofs  —  from  my 
poem  Oregonia,  and  putting  it  into  what 
you  call  correct  metre,  but  altering  my 
words  as  little  as  possible.'  I  said  'By 
all  means ! '  took  the  proof,  —  and  shortly 
afterwards  sent  it  back  to  him  corrected 
in  the  way  asked  for.  Without  telling 
Savage  Armstrong  that  he  had  been  to 
me  on  the  subject,  he  made  exactly  the 


same  request  to  him,  asking  him  to  cor 
rect  the  same  passage  in  the  same  way, 
which  Savage  Armstrong  accordingly 
did.  After  a  day  or  two  he  wrote  to 
each  of  us  somewhat  in  these  terms :  'I 
rather  disbelieved  what  you  two  boys 
said  about  the  metre  of  my  poems,  and 
so  I  put  you  both  to  the  same  test,  and 
as  curiously  enough  your  revisions  of  the 
same  passage  came  out  just  the  same 
there  must  be  something  in  your  criti 
cism,  and  I  have  decided  to  revise  my 
book  on  the  lines  suggested  by  you  both. ' 
No  doubt  Miller  was  in  a  difficult  position 
with  his  publishers,  to  whom  he  probably 
never  explained  why  he  found  himself 
bound  to  withdraw  Pacific  Poems.  How 
could  he  give  himself  away  by  saying  it 
was  due  to  their  technical  deficiency?  In 
any  case  he  does  not  say  so  in  his  post- 


cript  to  ' Songs  of  the  Sierras,'  a  title 
suggested  by  Savage  Armstrong,  a  vol 
ume  of  more  than  twice  the  length  of  Pa 
cific  Poems,  but  embodying  them  in  a  re 
vised  form.  My  friend  George  Francis 
Armstrong,  like  Joaquin  Miller,  has 
joined  the  great  majority,  so  I  have  been 
unable  to  obtain  his  confirmation  to  the 
above  statement,  but  his  widow  has  writ 
ten  to  confirm  my  view  of  what  happened 
between  us  and  Miller,  saying  that  'he 
had  assisted  Miller  to  tune  up  his  poems' 
and  given  him  the  title  of  '  Songs  of  the 
Sierras '  for  his  enlarged  volume. ' ' 

At  the  end  of  the  Preface  to  Pacific 
Poems  Miller  added  the  following:  "P. 
S.  I  got  the  foregoing  and  the  two  fol 
lowing  Poems  in  type,  about  half  the  con 
templated  book,  when  I  fortunately  met 
with  an  able  critic,  who  kindly  looked 


over  the  proofs,  and  advised  me  not  to 
publish.  I  shall  follow  his  advice,  for 
the  fact  of  his  being  a  critic  does  not  de 
pend  entirely  on  the  fact  that  he  never 
wrote  a  successful  line  in  his  life,  but  he 
has  good  judgment  and  a  well  balanced 
head ;  in  fact  I  know  of  nothing  equal  to 
the  equilibrium  of  his  mind,  except,  it 
may  be,  its  stupidity. — M."  According 
ly,  he  abandoned  the  plan  of  publishing 
Pacific  Poems,  and,  as  he  said  in  the  pre 
face  to  Songs  of  the  Sierras,  less  than 
half-a-dozen  copies  left  his  hands.  The 
one  concerning  which  this  account  has 
been  written  is  made  up  as  follows :  Pa 
cific  Poems  /  By  Joaquin  Miller.  /  (Pub 
lishers'  Device)  /  London:  /  Whitting- 
ham  And  Wilkins.  /  1871.  /  (xii)  +  107 
pages:  P.  (i),  half-title,  containing 
words  "Pacific  Poems' ';  p.  (ii),  blank; 


p.  (iii),  title-page  as  above;  p.  (iv), 
blank;  p.  (v),  dedication,  "To  Maud"; 
p.  (vi),  blank;  pp.  (vii)-x,  Preface;  p. 
(xi),  Fly-title,  "Arazonian";  p.  (xii), 
containing  twenty-seven  lines  of  verse  in 
italic  type,  beginning  "Because  the  skies 
were  blue,  because";  pp.  (1)-18,  the 
poem  entitled  "Arazonian";  p.  (19), 
Fly-title,  "Oregonia";  p.  (20),  contain 
ing  fifteen  lines  of  verse,  beginning, 
"Sad  song  of  the  wind  in  the  moun 
tains";  pp.  (21)-107,  the  dramatic  poem 
entitled  * '  Oregonia. ' ' 

This  copy  is  the  one  presented  to  the 
"brother  poet"  to  whom  Miller  was  in 
troduced  in  Dean  Stanley's  drawing 
room  and  who  wrote  out  the  story  of  the 
results  of  their  meeting  as  given  above. 
Written  in  ink  on  the  half-title  is  the  in 
scription:  A.  Perceval  Graves  of  the  Isle 


of  Erin  from  his  friend  C.  H.  Miller  the 
California  Savage. 

The  revised  volume,  Songs  of  the  Sier 
ras,  was  issued  in  the  early  summer  of 
1871  by  Longmans,  Green,  Eeader  and 
Dyer.  A  glance  at  the  text  of  the  poem 
Arasonian  at  once  shows  changes  from 
that  printed  in  the  suppressed  Pacific 
Poems.  For  example,  in  the  latter, 
lines  12-13  read: 

And  hope  to  ride  on  the  billows  of 

breasts, 
And   hope   to   rest   in   the  haven   of 

bosoms. 

In  Songs  of  the  Sierras  this  becomes : 

And  hope  to  ride  on  the  billows  of 


And   hope   to  rest  in   the  haven   of 
breasts. 

Oregonia,  the  longest  of  the  two  pieces 


in  Pacific  Poems  does  not  appear  as  such 
or  under  this  title  in  Songs  of  the  Sier 
ras.  The  poet  seems  to  have  worked 
over  the  subject  matter  of  Oregonia 
anew,  changed  his  metrical  scheme  en 
tirely,  as  well  as  the  names  of  the  char 
acters  (except  one,  Lamonte),  and  given 
the  rewritten  poem  a  new  title,  Ina. 
The  version  in  Pacific  Poems  opens 
thus: 

SCENE  I 

A  hacienda  in  the  Sacramento.  S  ANTON  A 
standing  alone,  looking  on  the  moonlit  moun 
tains. 

SANTONA 

Diabla  looms  like  a  sea-girt  isle  above 

The   rolling  clouds  that  break  in  foam  of 

snow; 

Beyond,  the  buttes  lie  flashing  in  the  moon, 
Like  silver  tents  pitch 'd  in  the  fields  of 

heaven, 


While  still  beyond,  Sierra 's  gleaming  peaks, 
Wrapped  in  their  shrouds  of  everlasting  snow, 
Do  stand  in  line  as  I  look  heavenward, 
Like  mighty  mile-stones  on  the  way  to  God. 

In  Ina  this  becomes : 

SCENE  I 

A  Hacienda  near  Tezcuco,  Mexico.  Young 
DON  CABLOS  alone,  looking  out  on  the  moonUt 
mountains. 

DON    CARLOS 

Popocatapetl  looms  lone  like  an  island 

Above  the  white  cloud-waves  that  break  up 
against  him ; 

Around  him  white  buttes  in  the  moon  light 
are  flashing, 

Like  silver  tents  pitch  M  in  the  fields  of 
heaven ; 

While  standing  in  line,  in  their  snows  ever 
lasting, 

Flash  peaks  as  my  eyes  into  heaven  are  lifted, 

Like  milestones  that  lead  to  the  City  Eternal. 


These  extracts  sufficiently  illustrate 
the  nature  and  extent  of  the  changes 
made  by  Miller  as  a  result  of  the  crit 
icism  of  Messrs.  Armstrong  and  Graves. 

The  Songs  of  the  Sierras  was  reviewed 
in  the  Athenaeum,  amongst  other  jour 
nals,  sympathetically  but  discriminating 
ly.  In  its  number  for  June  3,  1871,  the 
Athenaeum  said:  "Although  we  cannot 
give  Mr.  Miller  a  front  place  in  the  hier 
archy  of  modern  poets,  we  are  glad  to 
welcome  him  as  a  true  and  original  sing 
er.  t Songs  of  the  Sierras'  is  a  volume 
which  must  be  read  by  all  lovers  of  real 
poetry.  The  poems  show  traces  of  the 
influences  of  our  best  modern  poets.  Mr. 
Miller  is,  however,  no  copyist.  .  .  .  He 
resembles  Browning  in  novel  and  apt 
metaphors  taken  from  objects  high  or 
low,  common  or  uncommon,  but  always 


new  and  forcible,  and  often  quaint  — 
making  one  smile  at  the  sudden  turn." 

After  the  appearance  of  this  volume, 
says  one  who  was  in  close  touch  with  the 
poet,  life  became  easier  and  he  was 
sought  after  by  the  great  both  in  Europe 
and  his  own  country.  The  copy  of 
Songs  of  the  Sierras  which  he  presented 
to  Mr.  Graves  is  preserved  along  with 
that  of  the  Pacific  Poems,  and  its  half- 
title  bears  the  inscription:  To  one  of 
my  first  and  firmest  friends  in  London. 
Joaquin  Miller.  June  24.  71.  These 
two  volumes,  around  which  cluster  so 
many  memories  of  friendship  and  liter 
ary  association,  are  treasures  which 
every  collector  of  American  first  editions 
would  surely  delight  to  possess. 


c 


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